My friend Layer recently sent me some very interesting info. Before I continue, let me state that I have no way of verifying the information. What I'm about to state is pure speculation, based on what I saw. But I still thought it would be interesting to share this with you all, and let you draw your own conclusions.

It would appear that a TRON graphic novel was once planned, to be published by a company called Cho-Zen Publishing. As proof, I was sent a link that allowed me to see mock-up front and back covers of this graphic novel, which hint that it was going to be an adaptation of the movie's story. (However, I will not post the images or the link to them, since I do not have permission.)

What leads me to believe that this is a past project that was canceled — as opposed to a current project that is upcoming — is the following.

Doing a search on "Cho-Zen Publishing" (or "Books") reveals that they only have one published comic to their credit, called Shao Tzu, dating back to 2003.

SLG is the current rights holder for comic books related to TRON, so any new books would likely be coming from them and not another company.

Considering that Cho-Zen only has one title released in 2003 to their name . . . it lends credence to the conclusion that Disney may have been floating the idea of a graphic novel based on the film, to coincide with the release of the TRON 2.0 game, but that this idea never made it past the planning stage. Either that, or this was a "spec" work, someone's wishful thinking that never came to pass.

3 comments so far.

L. Walker
December 25, 2006 2:33 AM

Right now, an adaptation (of the novelization) is on our high list of possibilities. Time and money being an important factor. I never heard about this. That means it probably predates the game. I was in talk with Disney before the game was announced, but that really doesn't mean anything.

I know we were in competition with another company for the rights, but I never found out which one.

I actually managed to miss the tagline on the front cover image, when I wrote about this.

It says:

"A New Story, New Vision, Digital Style."

So that actually implies it was going to be a completely new story, and not an adaptation of the film. And that it would be completely computer drawn, as opposed to the old-fashioned pencil and ink first.

Anonymous
December 29, 2006 3:51 PM

Have you ever scene the IRON MAN "Crash" comic book. I think that was the first CG comic way way back pretty cool at the time.

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